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What Happens to the Power of US...

So, here's a question. What happens to the power of US, to this social network, grassroots sort of excitment around services, such as Flickr or Myspace, when the services get bought?

We see that Yahoo's attempts to put Flickr accounts on one platform led to a backlash. Isn't there something inherently deflating to a service that made its name as an alternative to big companies getting bought by them? Anyone know of any other examples along the lines of Flickr/Yahoo dustup?

11:08 AM

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My first thought.

Oh no it's Heather and another day , another question! I feel an ice cream headache coming over me. I don't know if this qualifies as an answer wise one of the BW web, but ebay/paypal might deserve a little looksy by the booksy.

Posted by: Jim Dermitt at August 30, 2005 11:44 AM

Jim Jim Jim, No fair! I don't always ask questions. Often, I write a post that goes on at lenght with nary a question in sight.

Posted by: Heather Green at August 30, 2005 12:48 PM

Gee whiz Heather, if you keep that up they might put you in charge of pricing the gasoline!

Posted by: Jim Dermitt at August 30, 2005 01:24 PM

Ahh yes, I could enact some price curbs like the great Aloha state has done.

Posted by: Heather Green at August 30, 2005 01:27 PM

Let's move to Hawaii Heather! You could blog from there, couldn't you? Join the Navy?

http://www.hawaii.navy.mil/

Posted by: Jim Dermitt at August 30, 2005 01:50 PM

You can look at others in the photo space, and see which dotcoms got bought and how they are working with customers. Are Ofoto customers happier now that it's Kodak? Are Snapfish customers happier now that it's HP? Are Picasa customers happier now that it's Google. Or are they pissed they had to buy the product, and now it's free?

Oh, and get a room!

Posted by: Phil at August 30, 2005 03:36 PM

I think it's immaterial who owns the community as long as it continues to invite and reward participation. The problem creeps in when the community's owner either wants to "push" its own content - or, if they decide to recoup unrelated expenses from the community.

Posted by: David Gibbons at August 30, 2005 05:26 PM

you daid it david:

- if they maintain the authenticity that attracted the initial crowd, then o-k